NASA Structural Geology What is the origin of the structures we observe in rocks around the world? What causes seafloors to be turned into mountain ranges? What causes high pressure and temperature rocks, formed at great depth, to appear sometimes at the surface?
The answer to these questions is Plate Tectonics. Long ago.... Already in 1596, the Dutch cartographer Cornelis Ortelius noted that the coastlines of Latin America and Africa matched very well. In his Thesaurus Geographicus he suggests that the continents were torn apart bij earthquakes and floods, but his ideas didnt convince anybody
until the early 20th century Continental drift In 1915, the German geologist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener suggested that all continents were joined during the Permian Supercontinent Pangea drifts apart ever since the Permian He called his theory Continental Drift h t t p : / / p u b s . u s g s . g o v / p u b l i c a t i o n s / t e x t / w e g e n e r . h t m l
Continental Drift 2 Continents match at continental margin Wegener also looked at: geological structure sedimentology and... Continental drift 3 ...fossils, like Mesosaurus and Lystrosaurus If they could swim that far, why not found anywhere else? => continents were joined. Continental Drift 4 Alternatives for fossil evidence: T a r b u c k
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Continental Drift 5 Wegener, a meteorologist, also looked at climatic evidence He found tropical coal deposits in arctic regions and evidence for glacial activity in warm areas => Either the climatic zones had changed or the continents had moved Arctic coal company, Svalbard, (ca 1920) Permian glacial striations, South Africa No Continental Drift Theory published in 1915 Very negative reactions (esp. from UK/US) No good explanation for moving plates Wegener died in Greenland (1930) => theory in hibernation... h t t p : / / p u b s . u s g s . g o v / p u b l i c a t i o n s / t e x t / w e g e n e r . h t m l
From: Structural Geology (1956) by L.U. de Sitter Or...? Cold war => world wide net of seismometers to detect nuclear explosions Also observed earthquakes strange pattern... D a v i s
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Earthquakes 1994-1999 U S G S
Why were earthquakes concentrated in this way? Earth structure Oceanic crust about 5 km thick, Continental crust on average 25 km solid upper mantle (ca 100km) viscous astenosphere (100- 200km) solid lower mantle fluid outer core (Fe, Ni) solid inner core (Fe, Ni) Lithosphere = crust + solid upper part of mantle Mid Oceanic Ridges Harry Hess: geologist and marine captain. Captained USS Cape Johnson during WWII & mapped seafloor wherever he went. Cold war: detailed seafloor maps for nuclear subs Global system of Mid Oceanic Ridges Lots of volcanism and earthquakes along ridges
Sea floor spreading Harry Hess 1960: new theory: oceanic crust formed at volcanic MOR, astenoshere gliding surface
Paleomagnetics Proof for seafloor spreading through paleomagnetism.
Magnetic minerals align along earths magnetic field during deposition or in solidifying
Reorientation when Curie temperature is reached Nieuwenhuijs (1997) Paleomagnetics 2 Cold war: Look for nuclear subs by looking at magnetic field Variations in (paleo)magnetism of ocean floor Could be related to known changes of Earths magnetic field => indication of age of ocean floor? symmetric pattern
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Paleomagnetism 3 Reversals well known stripes indication of age => New rock was being made at the ridges! Ages ODP: Contrasting ages for continents and ocean floor And the old stuff? New crust at oceanic ridges, nothing older than 200 Ma => Where does old oceanic crust go? Look at earthquakes: T a r b u c k
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Subduction trace of deep earth quakes and trenches along volcanic island arches led to the idea of subduction T a r b u c k
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Plates Plate tectonics Tuzo Wilson (plates), Jason Morgan (first 12 plates) and Xavier Le Pichon (margins and relative movements) synthesized plate tectonics in mid 1960s T a r b u c k
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Plate movement Plate margins Three types: Divergent margins, where plates drift apart; Convergent margins, where plates collide and move across each other; Transform margins, where the plates move past each other; T a r b u c k
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Divergent margins Plates move away from each other: extension first uplift and volcanism rift valley rift sea oceanic basin structures: normal faults volcanism uplift / subsidence sedimentation T a r b u c k
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Divergent margins 2 example:East Africa / Red Sea Kilimanjaro, a volcano (top) and the fault scarp in Tanzania (below) Tarbuck & Lutgens (1994) NASA Convergent margins plates collide: contraction A: ocean-continent collision B: ocean-ocean collision C: continent-continent collision Structures: subduction earthquakes volcanism metamorphism folding reverse and thrust faults some strike slip faults T a r b u c k
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Convergent Margins 2
Examples: thrusts (Glarus Thrust, CH) folding (Rockies) volcanism (Merapi, Indonesia) Transform margins Plates glide along each other horizontally: strike slip Large displacements example: San Andreas,Cal. Structures: earthquakes folds basin formation all kinds of faults. T a r b u c k
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Transform margins Plate tectonics, how? Driving force is probably convection in the interior of the Earth. Its purpose is the cooling of the Earth. Several theories exist about the way convection works. Mantle convection convection in the entire mantle (A) or just in the upper part (B)? sinking of the old, cold and heavy oceanic plate (slab-pull) (B)? pushing of the new and warm oceanic plate (slab-push) (B)? upward convection only occurs in small areas (plumes), with sinking plates as the downward component (C)? The jury is still out.. T a r b u c k
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All the way down Recent work (McNamara et al, Nature 416, 2002) seems to suggest all of the mantle is involved, with subducted plates going down into the lower mantle Mantle convection Left: cool mantle, right: warm mantle http://anquetil.colorado.edu/szhong/movies.html What do I care? Where am I working? What kind of rocks and structures can I expect? Literature Illustrations from a.o.: Davis & Reynolds: Structural Geology of Rocks and Regions, 2nd Edition, Wiley 1996. Tarbuck & Lutgens: Earth Science, 7th edition, Macmillan 1994. Twiss & Moores: Structural Geology, Freeman 1992.
Literature 2 Interesting websites:
www.scotese.com www.platetectonics.com www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/wegener.html www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/geology/tectonics.html volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/vwlessons/plate_tectonics/introduction. html www.mines.edu/fs_home/enelson/tectonic.html pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/historical.html www.uky.edu/ArtsSciences/Geology/webdogs/plates/reconstructions.ht ml